How to play.
Everyone gets the same secret word except the imposter. Give clues without giving it away, then work out who was bluffing.
What you need
- 3 to 20 players.
- One phone passed round the table, or a room with everyone on their own phone.
- About five minutes a round. By default, a round per player.
Three ways to play
- Everyone has a phone Start a room and share the code. Everyone sees their card and votes on their own phone. A TV can be the sign.
- Pass the phone One phone goes round for the cards, sits in the middle for the clues and the vote, and goes round again for a secret ballot if you like.
- Host runs it One phone goes round once for the cards, then stays with the host, who taps each turn, calls the vote and puts in who got pointed at. Best with a TV showing whose turn it is.
A round
- The deal. Each player holds the phone to see their card. Civilians see the category and the word. The imposter sees only the category (or a grid of 16 words, or nothing, depending on the setting).
- Clues. Going round in the order shown, each player says one word about the secret word. Two passes by default, with the order reversed on the second; or keep going round until the table is ready to vote.
- Talk. Sixty seconds to argue about who sounded off.
- Vote. Point on three (the host puts in the accused and who pointed at them), or pass the phone round for a secret ballot. Most votes is out.
- The reveal. If the accused was the imposter, they get one guess at the word. If they were clean, the imposter got away with it.
Clue rules
One word. Not the word itself, not the category, not a rhyme, not a translation. If someone says the word out loud, tap “Someone said the word” and say who. A civilian said it: the imposter takes the round and a new word is dealt. The imposter said it: that counts as their guess, and the round is over.
The trick for civilians is a clue that proves you know the word without handing it to the imposter. “Tall” for giraffe works. “Neck” is too much.
Ties
If the vote is tied, the tied players face one re-vote. Still tied, nobody is out and the imposter escapes. In a room, a vote with fewer than half the table in gets fifteen more seconds, then counts as a tie. The host makes the two calls the app cannot: who said the word, and whether a guess was right.
Scoring
| What happened | Civilians | Imposter |
|---|---|---|
| Imposter survives the vote | 0 | 3 |
| Imposter caught, guesses the word | 1 each for a correct vote | 2 |
| Imposter caught, misses the guess | 1 each for a correct vote | 0 |
| Someone said the word | 0 | 3 |
| Still tied after the re-vote | 0 | 3 |
| The imposter said the word | 0 | 2 |
| Fewer than half the table voted | 0 | 3 |
At the end: the overall winner, Best liar (most imposter points) and Sharpest eye (most correct votes).
How many imposters
One for 3 to 10 players, two from 11, and never more than one in every three players beyond the first. Surprise draws one to one more than that, three at most. With two imposters, a partner of a caught one scores 2.
Fairness
- The imposter is drawn fresh each round, and nobody is the imposter three rounds running. Turn on fair rotation and everyone is the imposter once before anyone repeats.
- The imposter rarely gives the first clue: drawn first, they are drawn again once. Off at three players, where it would give them away.
- Both cards look and feel identical, so nobody can read the screen from across the table.
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